Much like the troublesome trio, Vurhg didn’t care and heckled on.
I had to have drifted off at some point because the next thing I knew Vurhg was growl-speaking a mile a minute somewhere off to the side of me, I was laid out on Cy’s blanket once more with it loosely about my shoulders, and a beast I’ve never laid eyes on before was leaning over me, along with a human woman, their faces puckered in concern.
Coming to with a startled yelp, the beastman holding my eyelid open to peer down into my eyeball pulled back, nudging the woman with him back with him, just in time to dodge my flailing arms as I shot up.
“What the hell’s going on?!” I demanded to know.
The beast that had been leaning over me grinned. The woman behind him offered me a small smile. “You hit your head,” she answered.
“Where the hell am I?” I blustered out, flustered. My gaze darted from the pair over to Vurhg, who seemed to be arguing with a beastman even taller than him.
“Not Hell,” the beastman beside her quipped.
Smacking him lightly across the arm, the woman rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t tease her. It’s not funny.” To me, she offered, “You’re in the Lo denaii village. Do you recall anything before that? Do you remember what happened?”
Vurhg, catching the tail end of the conversation, broke off from the beastman he was arguing with to rush over and blurt, “She ‘lone, Vurhg help. She fall, hit head, hair fall off.” Vurhg’s hands shot up defensively. “Vurhg not touch hair. It just falled off.” His miming of The Great Dewigging would probably be funny under any other circumstances.
My eyebrows shot up as I met the male’s pleading, desperate gaze, begging me to go along with that load of tripe he was trying to spew. Thinking over what he said, I laughed a little, I couldn’t help it. I was a bit fuzzy at the moment but I was far from addled. “My hair just fell off?” I spluttered out with a weird fit of laughter.
“Vurhg not do it,” he insisted, fidgeting like a guilty little kid.
He thought he’d made my hair fall off? It was so ludicrous, I fell into a fit of the giggle snorts over it.
I’m surrounded by Yeti people. He thinks he made me bald. This is crazy!
The male with Vurhg came over to crouch down beside the beastman accompanied by the woman. “Why she laugh? What Vurhg break her?” Dark eyes the color of molasses darted from me to the pair. “Break her head?” he fretted.
“Lo denaii aren’t real,” I blurted between fits of the sillies. Oh, I’ve cracked, for sure.
The woman blinked, stared, then blink-blinked. “Do you know where you are?” she pressed.
Getting ahold of myself, I sobered and answered, “I don’t know.” My shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Some village.” I hooked a thumb over towards Vurhg. “That guy said you could help me.”
“They help. Vurhg get help. You mate be happy,” the beast in question chirped with what I took as false cheer. There he went again with the pleading look. If he thought I was going to help him, the male that nabbed me up and kidnapped me, stole my mega potatoes and Turkey Day trimmings, he has lost his mind.
“I hope he rips your arms off and beats you with them,” I boldly proclaimed. Nodding, I lifted my head, met his pleading gaze, and glared up at him. “I’ll wanna watch.”
“Smell two males,” the beast that appeared to be paired up with the woman gruntingly corrected.
The male that had chosen to crouch down near me gave a short sniff and then grumbled something in their growl-speak language to the others that I had no clue as to what.
“No know them,” the male with the woman grumbled. “Not smell f’mil’ar.” Tilting his head to study me, he shook his head. “No know her neither.”
“Of course you don’t, I’m human,” I blustered.
“Female smell like funny Lo denaii,” Vurhg grumbled half under his breath.
Shooting a glare his way, I pointed a finger at him warningly. “Hey! No one asked you, Suzy Startles and Throws!”
Vurhg’s face turned a funny color and he looked like he was struggling to find his breath.
“Look, if I’m good, I’d like to get going back home now. My people will be looking for me right about now.” It was a lie but what did they know about me? Nothing.
“No have people,” Vurhg grumbled.
Trying to stand, cautious, I whipped my head in Vurhg’s direction to growl at him, just like I used to when I was a kid. “Like fuck I don’t, fuzz for brains.”
Vurhg blinked at that, his scowl slipping into a half frown. Eyeing me from head to toe with the beginnings of something more than curiosity, he rumbled softly, “Sound like Joad-knee.”
